Is IL-17A the Key to Preventing Kidney Damage?

January, 2016 - Control inflammation. It's a common preventive recommendation to help people with renal disease manage diabetes and protect the kidneys. But it's easier said than done.

A lot of different factors contribute to inflammation like your diet, weight, illness, injury, auto-immune disorders, and other things. But if you don't control inflammation, it can wreak havoc on whatever kidney function you have left.

And that's a problem when you have renal disease. Medication can help, and a diet that's low in sodium, potassium, phosphorus, and protein like these Renal Meals can, too.

But what if there was another way to control inflammation and protect your kidneys from further damage? It's something a researcher at August University stumbled across by accident. In a study to see how kidneys responded to a substance in the body called cytokine IL-17A, Dr. Ganesan Ramesh found that eliminating this substance led to further kidney damage.

But when IL-17A was administered every 48 hours for a few weeks, the results were unexpected. It helped reverse complications associated with diabetic neuropathy. It also helped reduce excess fat in the blood that's been linked to diabetes, kidney damage, and heart disease.

At present, using IL-17A to prevent further kidney damage has only been studied in a laboratory environment. But Dr. Ramesh believes it's possible that further studies on damaged kidneys and IL-17A could be the key to reversing kidney disease and reducing or eliminating the need for dialysis.

That's probably not going to happen anytime soon. But Ramesh and other kidney pathologist researchers are committed to finding a way to treat renal disease to improve quality of life for millions of people.

Until IL-17A clears clinical trials to treat renal disease in humans, medications, diet, and lifestyle choices remain the best ways to manage this condition.